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Litany and Saints

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First page of the Litany

 

The evolution of the Litany of the Saints present in Medieval books of hours is directly tied to the rise of saints' cults and their burgeoning role in the Medieval Catholic Church. The worship of saints arose from the theology around Christ’s resurrection during late-Antiquity (c. 400-500) and the subsequent argument that the flesh and soul of a holy person could coexist in Heaven and on Earth. The tombs of these honored people, often martyrs or confessors, became sites of worship, as early Christians saw them as conduits between the astral and physical planes. The veneration of these tombs expanded into the collection and enshrinement of saints' relics (corpses or parts of corpses) in churches and cathedrals throughout the rapidly Christianizing Western and Eastern Roman Empires, creating networks of pilgrimage sites alongside the Roman road infrastructure. Miracles, on both a personal and communal scale, would be attributed to these saints in specific locations, encouraging the faithfui to undertake pilgrimages to various locations and inspiring devotional literature praising holy men and women in the form of hagiographical texts about their lives. When Christianity gained a more universal foothold in Europe during the Medieval period, the worship of saints blossomed. Cults of the saints perpetuated themselves at a greater rate following the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the growth of the Catholic Church’s power throughout Europe. Almost all churches and monasteries claimed to own relics belonging to saints. There was even a small shortage of saints’ relics during the Christianization of remote areas of Europe in the early ninth century, leading to the release of Roman relics beyond the Alps and increased recognition of local saints in Northern and Northwestern Europe.

It was out of this milieu that the Litany of the Saints began to form and gain popularity. While the Litany first appeared in the Western Christianity during the fifth century, it was the increased importance of saints' cults (through the relic trade and pilgrimage networks) that made it a popular prayer ritual in mass. These litanies were hierarchical listings of saints whom worshippers would pray to, generally arranged in the following order: the Virgin Mary, archangels, apostles, martyrs, confessors and virgins. Each name or group of names would be read out during the prayer, along with the declaration “pray for us” after each saint’s name. The written forms of the litany reflected this organization by prestige, with each saint given a line to themselves with a shorthand form of ora/orate pro nobis (pray for us).

Litany

In order of appearance

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Michael the Archangel, the angel Gabriel, Raphael the Archangel, All Angels and Archangels, All Saints, John the Baptist, the Patriarchs and Prophets, Peter, Paul, Andrew, Jacob, John, Philippe, Bartholemew.

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Second and third pages of the Litany

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Thomas, Matthew, Simon, Thadeus (Jude), Barnabas, Luke, Mark, Martial, the Apostles and Evangelists, the Disciples, the Innocents, Stephen, Clemens, Fabian, Sebastian, Laurence, Vinvent, Gervasius, Protasius, Dionysus, Maurice, George, Eutropius, Quentin, the Martyrs, Gregory, Martin, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, Veronica[?], Marcel, Nicholas, Eligius, [unknown]

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Julian, Benedict, Maurus, Leobinus (Lubin), the Confessors, Anna, Mary Magdalene, Agatha, Lucia, Cecilia, Barbara, Katherine, Genovese, Faith, Hope, Charity, the Virgins, All Saints and Holy God

 

Notably, regional saints Martial, Leobinus, Eutropius, Maurus and Dionysus, all of whom are present in the Litany, are absent from the MS 1000, the hypertext Book of Hours, and the standard pre-Vatican II text for the Litany.  This suggests that the owner of the manuscript and/or its creator hailed from Western France, where these saints were commonly worshipped.  Saints who in other manuscripts are put together on the same line (Gervasius and Protasius, Fabian and Sebastian) are here given their own line and illuminated initial.

Suffrages

The Suffrages of the Lewis & Clark Book of Hours contain a short and fairly standard list of prayers to both male and female saints. These saints, with a few exceptions, adhere to a similar structure as that found in other manuscripts, including the Hours of Joanna I of Castile and the Rothschild Hours (though notably they do not include, as others do, the Virgin Mary).

The saints included are (in order) Michael, John the Baptist, Peter and Paul, Jacob, Christopher, Sebastian, Mary Magdalene, Catherine, and Barbara. Interestingly, the one "non-standard" saint in the Suffrages, Saint Barbara, is also included in the Rothschild manuscript, as are Saints Catherine and Sebastian.

All of the saints in the Suffrages of this book of hours could potentially be extremely important to the worship of both men and women. For example, the Archangel Michael, who appears first in the Suffrages (after the image of the Holy Trinity) is known for his role in getting rid of obstacles and repelling attacks, and is responsible for "revealing the souls of the saints, and leading them into joy". This is a role that seems at first glance extremely male, but could be venerated by women too, especially those embracing the "masculine" aspects of prayer. Also, as mentioned above, Books of Hours were very often used to educate children and to lead the family in prayer. This might lead to saints being chosen who were of value in teaching a number of moral lessons and whose deeds were useful to reflect on for everyone, and not necessarily constrained by gender.

In the same way, the three female saints pictured- Catherine, Barbara and Mary Magdalene all embody an archetype often applied to medieval women: that of the "inner hermit". This is often discussed in relation to anchoresses, women who chose to withdraw from the world and live out their lives in solitary prayer, often in "cells" attached to churches. They emphasize the role of anchoresses as heroic worshippers, whose spiritual life was viewed as more important than, but inherently informed by, their earthly gender".The Ancrene Wisse, a guidebook for anchoresses that contains instructions on conducting both their physical and Spiritual lives, both "describe[s] its readers as fragile vessels, who have to exert the utmost vigilance in guarding their lives from their carnal female natures... [and yet] as tough-minded, ambitious descendents of the heroic solitaries of the early church, attempting something the author himself cannot: as hermits, who are also women but whose gender is not of fundamental importance". Interestingly, the life of the anchoress, and of spiritual women in general, depended on their firmly embracing this hermetic, almost genderless approach to prayer, but also on their unique position as women positioned to pray in a feminine way. The writer of the Ancrene Wisse consistently "slides in and out of gendered language", embracing both the specific "she" and the universal, direct "you".